1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an abrasive jet blasting machine for a continuous abrasive jet blasting treatment of wire-shaped and rod-shaped workpieces. The abrasive jet blasting machine includes a plurality of centrifugal wheel units arranged angularly offset relative to each other. To each centrifugal wheel unit are assigned two jet conducting and guiding plates which are adjustable relative to each other. All jet guiding plates are adjustable jointly either toward or away from the workpiece by means of an adjusting device which includes a swivelable lever.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An abrasive jet blasting machine of the above-described type is known from DE-C3-1,815,187. In this machine, each pair of jet guiding plates assigned to a centrifugal wheel is separately manually adjustable in accordance with the respective dimension of the workpiece by means of an adjusting device which includes a threaded spindle.
DE-C2-1,954,271 discloses a further development of the abrasive jet blasting machine mentioned above. In this machine, all jet guiding plate pairs are jointly manually adjustable by means of an adjusting device. The jet guiding plates must be adjusted on the basis of a scale each time workpieces with different cross-sectional dimensions or diameters are treated. This is very time-consuming. In addition, when the adjustment is carried out incorrectly, the machine or the workpieces may be damaged.
It is, therefore, the primary object of the present invention to provide an abrasive jet blasting machine of the above-described type in which an automatic adjustment of the jet guiding plates in accordance with the cross-section of the workpiece is ensured when a change of the dimension of the workpiece occurs.